Upgrading your laptop

It's not really easy to upgrade components on a laptop. Upgrading a laptop is divided into 2 categories:

Components

Internal components

Memory (the simplest operation).

The Hard disk.

The optical drive.

Upgrading the motherboard, processor or the screen, is very expensive and complex ...

External components

The addition of PCMCIA cards:

USB 2.0 and Firewire.

Network card.

WIFI card.

In addition the possibility for USB or Firewire:

USB Hub.

Keypad.

Reader / writer optical (CD / DVD).

Floppy Drive, memory cards.

Every peripherals that plugs into these ports ...

More informations

Adding memory in a laptop.

This operation is the easiest to achieve, we must know where to find the location of them: sometimes with a trapdoor on the underside of the laptop, sometimes under the keyboard ... The manual of the laptop will often be necessary to locate them.

This fact must then determine the type of memory to use (PC100 or PC133 for older PC2100, 2700 or 3200 for new laptops, all in SODIMM format

Changing the hard disk of a laptop.

This operation is somewhat more complex: it will be necessary, as in the case of memory modules, locate the door concealing the hard disk.

This is generally set on a rack: it will need to unscrew and then recover the adapter pin fixed on the front of the disk, reinstall it exactly the new disk, and finally reinstall the operating system.

Unlike a desktop PC, mobile ones generally offer the possibility of installing a single hard drive.
These hard drives are formatted in 2.5 "(against 3.5" for desktops).
The interface is most often PATA (or UDMA).
Upgrade the optical drive.

To replace a CD drive or combo DVD / CD with a DVD burner, it will often have to go through the manufacturer of the computer to hope to find a compatible hardware.
Indeed, if the optical drives of desktops are usually provided in standard format 5.25 "is different for each laptops, the racks are often different from one manufacturer to another.

It is sometimes not possible to change the drive, which is incorporated directly into the casing of the laptop.
The only solution in this case would be to buy an external USB or Firewire Drive.